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The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC and
the Presidential Economic Advisory Council, Presidential Foreign Intervention
Promotion Council have forged a stronger collaborative pact to improve on
foreign direct investment drives into the country.
The agreement was made in Abuja on Thursday,
September 4, 2025 when the Director General of the Council, Prince Adeniyi
Adeyemi, led his management team on a courtesy visit to the EFCC’s Executive
Chairman, Ola Olukoyede at the Commission’s corporate headquarters.
Adeyemi disclosed that the parley was
necessary to evaluate the integrity of the investing members of the
public preparatory to World Investment Summit to be hosted by Nigeria
in November 2025.
“Nigeria will be hosting the World Investment
Summit, the first of its kind in Africa. We have been traveling up
and down to bring in foreign investors to support Mr. President. In the
course of that, we met some people that really want to invest in
Nigeria. But in spite of their willingness and
readiness to work for Nigeria, we are being cautious, so as not to
run into barbed wires. Some people want to bring in money to invest, but
we don't have the intelligence to know whether the money they are bringing is
to finance terrorism or any other negative thing. So, in
order for us not to run into trouble in the course of doing our work, we
deemed it fit to consult you. We need to partner with you, to
collaborate to grow our economy. So, we are here to seek
collaboration with your Commission so that we can together make
Nigeria great again", he said
Adeyemi also appreciated Olukoyede’s giant strides as
the EFCC boss. “I want to appreciate the fantastic job you have been doing in
this Commission. With my assumption of office a few months ago,
I know what it is to be in a position of leadership. You, being
at the center of this Commission, I sincerely pray that God
Almighty will be with you”, he said.
Olukoyede expressed delight at the opportunity
to collaborate with the Council for the wellbeing of the economy and the
country and extended a hand of fellowship to the Council.
“Thank you for making time to see us. Accept our
hand of fellowship and collaborate with us. On our part as EFCC, one of
the things we are trying to drive home with the instrumentality of this work is
to grow the economy. When you are fighting corruption the aim is to
build the economy and not to bring it down. We must
find a balance between the fight against corruption and the sustenance of
investment and attraction to foreign direct investments. Though we are
trying to do that, it does not mean that we will tolerate financial
crimes,” he said.
Speaking on his resolve to spare no rogue investor in
the anti-corruption fight, Olukoyede stated that, “As many as we know set up
their businesses to destroy the economy, we will bring them
down. We don't have any apology for that. Bringing them
down will also help us build the economy because you can't set up
your business to destroy the economy. So, we try to strike
a balance and to see how we can interplay all the forces.
“Let us all ensure that we do the
right things. If somebody sets out to scam the system, the long
arm of the law will catch up with such a person. Let us always be
conscious of that. On our part, we are ready to do the right
things and to play by the rules.
